What a Full Bathroom Remodel in Villas Actually Costs, and How Long It Takes
A full bathroom remodeling in Villas, FL strips the room to the studs and rebuilds everything - floor, walls, shower or tub, vanity, fixtures, lighting, and often the exhaust fan - to current Lee County code. Most full bathroom remodels in Villas take 3 to 5 weeks from demo day to final walkthrough, assuming no major plumbing relocations or structural surprises. Homeowners should budget $9,000 to $28,000 for a complete gut-and-rebuild, with the majority of jobs in this area landing between $14,000 and $22,000. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate and get a written, line-item price for your specific bathroom.
How We Take a Full Bathroom Remodel From Gut to Finished Room
We follow the same sequence on every full bathroom remodeling job in Villas because skipping steps in a 1960s-era CBS home creates expensive problems later. Here is what the 5 stages look like on the ground, with real timelines your family can plan around.
Stage 1 - Demo, Containment, and the Honest Assessment (Days 1-2). We set up floor-to-ceiling plastic containment to keep construction dust out of your living space, then remove every surface down to the studs and slab. This is when we can see what the old walls were hiding. In Villas, where salt air and post-Ian moisture have been working on homes for decades, we often find corroded copper supply lines, dry-rotted bottom plates, or wall studs with termite damage that was invisible behind tile backer board. We photograph everything, show you what we found, and give you a firm price to fix it before we order a single new fixture.
Stage 2 - Rough-In Plumbing, Electrical, and Code Corrections (Days 3-8). With the room open, our licensed plumber relocates supply and drain lines if you are changing the layout, and our electrician runs new 20-amp dedicated circuits for the outlets, the exhaust fan, and any niche lighting you have selected. Lee County requires GFCI protection on every bathroom receptacle, and for pre-2002 homes in Villas, the inspector usually checks that the bathroom circuit is not shared with other rooms - a common original-build shortcut. If we find the home’s subpanel needs a breaker upgrade to support the new load, we handle it now so the rough inspection passes clean the first time.
Stage 3 - Waterproofing, Drywall, and Subfloor Prep (Days 9-15). This is the stage where the room goes from skeletal to a recognizable shape. We hang and tape moisture-resistant greenboard drywall on walls outside the wet zone, then install cement backer board - not drywall - on every surface inside the shower or tub surround. A full-coverage liquid-applied waterproofing membrane goes over the entire shower enclosure, including seams, corners, and the floor-to-wall transition. Villas’s high water table and 60-plus-inch annual rainfall mean a pinhole leak behind tile becomes a mold problem fast, so we treat waterproofing as the most important single step in any full bathroom remodeling in Villas.
Stage 4 - Tile, Fixtures, and the Vanity (Days 16-25). The tile crew sets the shower floor and walls first, then the bathroom floor, using large-format porcelain on the floors for fewer grout lines and easier cleaning. Once the grout cures, the plumber returns to set the shower valve trim, the tub spout, the toilet, and the vanity faucet and drain. The electrician installs the exhaust fan, vanity light, and any recessed ceiling lights, then the vanity and countertop go in. At this point the room is functional, just not finished - good news if your family has been sharing one bathroom for three weeks.
Stage 5 - Trim, Glass, and Final Inspection (Days 26-35). We install the shower door or glass enclosure, baseboards, mirror, towel bars, and any accessories. Then the Lee County building inspector comes for the final sign-off. Once the permit is closed, our project lead walks the room with you with a punch list in hand. Any open item we note gets scheduled that day. The full bathroom is cleaned, the containment comes down, and your new bathroom is ready to use - backed by our 730-Day Done Right Promise.
The Options You Will Choose Between During a Full Bathroom Remodel
A full bathroom remodeling in Villas means you pick every surface and fixture. We walk you through each category so you can balance budget with how the room looks and performs over the long haul.
- Shower pan vs. site-built tile floor. A prefabricated acrylic or solid-surface shower pan installs in one piece, has no grout joints to maintain, and costs less. A site-built tile shower floor is custom-sized, can work with any drain location, and gives you a seamless look, but adds $800-$1,500 to the job and requires a 48-hour flood test before we can proceed.
- Fiberglass surround vs. porcelain tile surround. A three-piece fiberglass or acrylic surround is the most budget-friendly option and installs in a day, but limits your design choices to a few colors and wall profiles. Full porcelain or ceramic tile on the shower walls gives you slab-to-ceiling coverage in the color and pattern you want, stands up to hard water, and is the standard choice for homes in Villas where resale value matters.
- Vanity: stock cabinet vs. semi-custom. A stock vanity from a brand like KraftMaid arrives assembled, fits standard dimensions, and keeps the timeline short. A semi-custom vanity built to your exact width, wood species, and door profile eliminates filler strips and makes a tight alcove look intentional, but adds 2-3 weeks of lead time and roughly $600-$1,200 to the cabinetry line item.
- Countertop: cultured marble vs. quartz. A one-piece cultured marble top with an integrated sink is seamless, easy to clean, and costs less. A slab quartz top with an undermount sink gives you a wider color palette, better long-term stain resistance, and a higher-end look that buyers in the $80K+ household income range expect.
- Exhaust fan: basic vs. humidity-sensing. A code-minimum 50-CFM fan gets the inspector’s check mark. A humidity-sensing fan with a 110-CFM motor runs automatically when moisture spikes, which matters more in Villas than in drier inland markets - we are in a subtropical climate where a hot shower sends condensation running down the walls unless the fan does its job.
What Full Bathroom Remodeling Costs in Villas, FL
Most full bathroom remodeling projects in Villas fall between $9,000 and $28,000, with the median job - a 5×8-foot bathroom kept in the original footprint, with mid-grade porcelain tile, a stock vanity, a fiberglass tub, and no plumbing relocation - running $14,000 to $18,000. The variables that move a quote from the low end toward the high end are real and specific, not arbitrary.
Size of the bathroom. A compact 5×7-foot guest bath costs less to tile and waterproof than a 10×12-foot primary bathroom with a separate water closet.
Plumbing and electrical relocation. Keeping the toilet, sink, and shower in their existing locations avoids cutting the slab to move drain lines. Moving a toilet drain even two feet in a slab-on-grade CBS home - which nearly every Villas home is - requires concrete saw-cutting, new waste-line routing, and a re-pour. That alone can add $1,500-$3,500 to the project.
What the demo uncovers. We budget for what we can see. On homes built between 1960 and 1985 in Villas, hidden conditions sometimes surface: corroded copper from decades of salt air, wood rot where an old shower pan was slowly leaking, or wall framing that was not properly anchored to the slab. We show you photos and give you a specific price to correct it before any work proceeds.
Material grade you select. Builder-grade porcelain tile keeps the flooring cost low. Large-format rectified porcelain or natural stone with a matching accent band raises both the tile cost and the required installation labor. A semi-custom vanity and quartz top will add $1,500-$2,500 over stock options, and a frameless glass shower enclosure typically runs $1,200-$2,200 more than a curtain rod.
Permit scope and code upgrades. The Lee County permit filing, plan review, and inspections are part of the estimate. If your home was built before the 2002 Florida Building Code adoption, the inspector may flag the bathroom’s electrical circuit or exhaust-vent termination during rough inspection. We build a contingency line for these code items so you are not surprised by a change order mid-project. Our estimates are upfront and written - the number you see is the number you pay, backed by our no-hassle upfront pricing guarantee.
What Villas Homes Specifically Do to a Full Bathroom Remodel
Villas is dominated by slab-on-grade concrete block ranch homes built between roughly 1960 and 1985, and that build era changes this job in ways a newer-home remodel does not face. The slab construction means moving a drain line is not a simple matter of cutting through a plywood subfloor - it requires saw-cutting concrete, which triggers a structural inspection before the plumbing can proceed. The original builders often placed bathrooms back-to-back on a shared wet wall, so we work with the existing chase whenever possible to avoid slab work entirely.
The other uniquely Villas factor is the post-Hurricane Ian code reality. Most of these homes were built decades before Florida mandated impact-rated openings and hurricane-strap continuity. When we pull a permit for a full bathroom remodeling that includes a window replacement - common when swapping an old jalousie or single-pane window above the tub - the Lee County Building Department reviews the opening under current code. That means the new window must be impact-rated or protected by an approved shutter system. We have done enough post-Ian work across Villas to anticipate that a bathroom permit often opens a conversation about broader code compliance, and we include those line items in the estimate so the inspector signs off without delay.
Moisture management here deserves its own conversation. Villas sits in a flood-prone corridor just inland from the Caloosahatchee River, with a water table that sits within 18 inches of grade in many lots and more than 60 inches of annual rainfall saturating the soil. A poorly vented bathroom exhaust fan or a shower niche with an overlooked pinhole in the waterproofing will feed mold within months. We use humidity-sensing exhaust fans, full-coverage membrane waterproofing, and cement backer board on every wet wall - not as an upsell, but because anything less fails here.
Homeowners occasionally pair full bathroom remodeling with other exterior work, especially when Ian-related Roof Repair in Villas revealed water intrusion that damaged a shared wall cavity, or when a planned Roof Replacement & Installation in Villas project already has crews and a dumpster on site. The bathroom work we do is always part of a broader Bathroom Remodeling in Villas scope when the homeowner wants us to tackle multiple baths at once.
Serving Villas, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Villas area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked Questions About Full Bathroom Remodeling in Villas
Plan on 3 to 5 weeks from the day we set containment to the day you step into a finished, inspected bathroom. The biggest variables are whether we need to saw-cut the slab to move plumbing, how long the Lee County inspection queue is for the rough and final visits, and the lead time on any semi-custom vanity or special-order tile you choose. Our bathroom remodeling crew provides a week-by-week schedule at the start of the job so you know which days you will need to be home and which days the bathroom will be offline.
Yes. Any job that involves moving or adding plumbing, altering electrical circuits, or changing the building envelope - which a gut remodel always does - requires a permit through the Lee County Building Department. We file the plans, pull the permit, schedule the inspections, and close it out. If your Villas home was built before 2002, expect the electrical rough inspection to include a review of whether the bathroom circuit needs to be brought to current code, even if you were not planning to touch the panel.
Yes, and that is what we recommend for most Villas homes unless the existing layout simply does not work for your family. Keeping the toilet, sink, and shower in their original locations avoids saw-cutting the concrete slab, which is the single most expensive variable on a CBS ranch home remodel. We can still give you a completely different look with new tile, a new vanity, new fixtures, and a frameless glass enclosure without moving a single drain line.
Most full bathroom remodels in Villas cost between $9,000 and $28,000, with the typical 5×8-foot guest bath landing between $14,000 and $18,000 when it stays in the original footprint with mid-grade finishes. A larger primary bathroom with a custom tile shower, a semi-custom vanity, quartz counters, and a frameless glass enclosure will run $20,000 to $28,000. Call (844) 638-7249 for a free, no-obligation estimate with a written price specific to your bathroom.
Every full bathroom remodeling we complete is backed by our 730-Day Done Right Promise - if something is not done right, we make it right, with no fine print and no runaround. The manufacturer warranties on your fixtures, tile, and vanity are separate and vary by brand, and we provide all the warranty registration paperwork at project close. Calls to our office are answered by a live person, 24/7, so you never wait until Monday morning to reach us if a question comes up.
If we find rotted framing, corroded plumbing, or code deficiencies we could not have seen during the estimate walkthrough, we stop work, show you photographs, and give you a firm written price to correct it before we proceed. You approve the change order, or we work within the original scope. We never hand you a surprise bill at the end. That is what upfront pricing means in practice.
Free Estimate for Full Bathroom Remodeling in Villas
If you are planning a full bathroom remodeling in Villas, FL, the next step is a free on-site estimate where we measure the space, discuss your layout and finish preferences, and hand you a written, line-item price - not a vague ballpark. Call (844) 638-7249 to set a time. A live person answers, 24/7, and we can usually have a project lead at your home within a few days. The estimate is free, the price is fixed, and the work is backed by our 730-Day Done Right Promise.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., bringing full bathroom remodeling to Villas, FL homes with transparent pricing and a guarantee that means something.